“Due To The Corrupt System, I Have A Dead Child:” Mother Of Tamir Rice Speaks On Non-Indictment Of Ohio Officers

"He was full of life and laughter. Tamir had the potential to be anything in the world."

In a Saturday appearance on MSNBC, Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, told Melissa Harris-Perry the non-indictment of the Ohio officer who fatally shot her son made her “mad as hell.”

“Due to the corrupt system, I have a dead child,” she said. “I feel like breath has been taken out of my body once again.”

Rice, who told Harris-Perry she was in bed when Cuyahoga CountyProsecutor Timothy McGinty called her home to inform her of the decision to clear Officer Timothy Loehmann, called the failure to hold anyone accountable for the 12-year-old’s death “unacceptable.”

Last week, more than a year after Loehmann shot the child — who was playing with a toy gun at a local park — a grand jury declined to indict both Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback. Loehmann, who said the boy appeared to be a man in his 20s, shot and killed Tamir just two seconds after he arrived on scene. Both Loehmann and Garmback claim they gave the child multiple verbal warnings.

In the televised non-indictment announcement, McGinty appeared to blame the child for his own death, repeatedly saying he was “big for his age.”

“He was my bright and shining star,” Rice said.

“He was full of life and laughter. Tamir had the potential to be anything in the world. But Officer Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback didn’t even give him a chance.”